Chief’s Briefs -Lafayette Edition

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Gilbert was a true point guard tonight, distributing to teammates and setting the tone. Chief thinks we kept the turnovers down to about 10. Plenty of assists.

True, competition was much weaker than Sunday, but Chief respects that we did not play down to it. Good job by coaching staff to keep the juice on and correct things such as sloppiness with the ball. After the tough loss, Chief told critics, Gilbert was coachable and he showed it today.

Polley was the other star today. His shot really looked crisp. Chief likes the release point on his shot and tonight the ball simply flowed into the basket. If you are swishing the ball, you don’t have to worry about the rims.

I won’t list Josh as a star not because he didn’t play well but because Chief wants to see him do it against good Bigs. On the other hand - can Cobb every play well in the games we are suppose to win? But, given the choice Chief likes the numbers he puts up against the Big Boys. Florida State’s Big front line is going to be a heck of a challenge.

Chief thought both Jalen and Brendan Adams played very well. Jalen is developing a very good pull up jumper. Brendan, had a box score stuffing game - given his minutes.

Chief is still concerned about Bigs switching on guards so far away from the basket - never a good thing. They seem to get lost in 3 point land. Would like to see the guards fight over screens more and Bigs stay between their man and the basket. Simple concept.

I did see more of the defender keeping the offensive player between his knees by moving both feet in concert rather than one at a time. This may seem like a minor technical detail to a casual fan but it really does impact outcomes.

The size of the crowd was disappointing tonight. Seems like at least half the fan base views UConn MBB as entertainment - they simply won’t pay to see a cup cake game. While Chief loves an elite competitive game, attending the game today supported the team and program; furthermore it’s part of doing your homework in learning about the team and players -picking up on various nuances.

Perhaps some will say - well Chief will do that for me? True, but in a pure basketball World, it’s part of the process. It makes you legit.

Carlton not being able to produce against bigger, better teams makes sense. Cobb not being able to produce against smaller, weaker teams is baffling. Hoping they can both figure it out by conference play.

Gilbert was awesome. Jalen was awesome. Polley was awesome.

Fun game to watch. Was this our best performance, or just our worst opponent?

Carlton not being able to produce against bigger, better teams makes sense. Cobb not being able to produce against smaller, weaker teams is baffling. Hoping they can both figure it out by conference play.

Gilbert was awesome. Jalen was awesome. Polley was awesome.

Fun game to watch. Was this our best performance, or just our worst opponent?

Carlton not being able to produce against bigger, better teams makes sense. Cobb not being able to produce against smaller, weaker teams is baffling. Hoping they can both figure it out by conference play.

Gilbert was awesome. Jalen was awesome. Polley was awesome.

Fun game to watch. Was this our best performance, or just our worst opponent?

- what I liked about polley tonight, apart from the money three ball, was that he displayed some athleticism driving on fast breaks. Really our x factor moving forward - when he shoots well the team feeds off it

- sid was terrible. Watched him carefully all game. He’s lazy out there, not a good defender, doesn’t go hard for rebounds, his picks are all just going through the motion he’s not actually screening the defender. He’s not going to be an impact player for quite some time

- wet spots on the court: much better today

- Brendan adams is like vital - can do a little bit of everything and plays really, really hard - unlike vital he does not get hot from three

- feel bad for Whaley. Just not a ton of room for him out there. He received too much PT last year so riding pine this year must be tough. He got less time than the walk on

- Gilbert’s shooting still looks off, but he played a terrific game none the less

- kwintin is pretty brutal out there. Ball always slips out of his hands when he makes a move towards the basket. Rooting for him though

- Florida state game is huge. We desperately need at least two good wins from our out of conference schedule if we wanna dance, and time is running out

The other thing I like about Tyler is he never forces anything and will get rid of the ball right away if he doesn't have a shot or a path to the basket. He seems to improve daily. Can we put Yakwe to rest Please! Agree with smoothcriminal about Sid. Yes early in his career but I'm not impressed yet.

I disagree

The other thing I like about Tyler is he never forces anything and will get rid of the ball right away if he doesn't have a shot or a path to the basket. He seems to improve daily. Can we put Yakwe to rest Please! Agree with smoothcriminal about Sid. Yes early in his career but I'm not impressed yet.

Diehard since '65

Pulley looked better and more comfortable in offense today albeit vs a smaller opponent His defense still bothers me a lot. Let's see how he looks against a formidable team on Saturday
our bigs continually get stuck above the key on defense. This kills them and has been this way since the Cuse game. Why hasn't Dan Hurley made some adjustments?
I did like the energy all game and the bench was really into it the full game.
should have won big and did so that's something nice

Yes, because ESPN has the Tier 1 rights and SNY is Tier 3. There isn't really a precedent where a BB school can say they'd rather not be on national TV so they can keep their start time. Starting to see it a bit more now on the football side, but its comparing apples to penguins.

Where is SuperJohn? I want to hear more about how good Sid is compared to Polley. Sid looked totally lost on defense. Don’t tell me this is all about game experience because we know Hurley has been emphasizing defense in practice. If you’re lazy and don’t defend in practice you won’t do it in a game either. Right now Sid has not shown any reason to take minutes from Polley. Hopefully that changes because if he is good enough to take his minutes we are going to have a stud.

Where is SuperJohn? I want to hear more about how good Sid is compared to Polley. Sid looked totally lost on defense. Don’t tell me this is all about game experience because we know Hurley has been emphasizing defense in practice. If you’re lazy and don’t defend in practice you won’t do it in a game either. Right now Sid has not shown any reason to take minutes from Polley. Hopefully that changes because if he is good enough to take his minutes we are going to have a stud.

In the preseason I thought the Sid Wilson hype was a bit over the top and we would be disappointed as we typically have been by supposed jack-of-all-trades skinny wings lately. I haven't seen much that suggests otherwise.

That said there are a number of other bright spots to make up for it.

Next year we need him to be the real deal though, head on straight and all.

I enjoyed watching it. Showed me we can dominate inferior opponents, which wasn’t guaranteed the past couple of years, that Gilbert can be a natural PG and impact the game without shooting and Polleys shooting confidence continues to grow. I’ll take that even against a middle school opponent.

Chef’s photo gets the Kwintin treatment: he tried. And upon further inspection, it’s clear (pun not intended) that the picture was taken with a 2004 Motorola Razor flip phone. To Chief’s defense, Ticket Security employees at the XL Center are vastly underpayed. If he did his “homework”, he would know he could be making a $1.50 per hour extra serving concessions.

Power of Love

I did see more of the defender keeping the offensive player between his knees by moving both feet in concert rather than one at a time. This may seem like a minor technical detail to a casual fan but it really does impact outcomes.